Roivant Sciences Ltd. CEO Matt Cline said the firm’s unit Immunovant Inc. with FcRn blocker batoclimab has established “frankly a new bar” in myasthenia gravis (MG) as the New York-based firm reported top-line results from its phase III study and first data from period 1 of the phase IIb study with the same drug in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. The data look promising, and Immunovant intends to use the findings to help advance second-generation FcRn prospect IMVT-1402 in both indications. Potentially registrational trials are planned. The U.S. FDA has granted IND clearance.

Roivant Sciences Ltd. has sold another company, this time offering up Dermavant Sciences Ltd. to Organon & Co. for $1.2 billion. The deal brings Organon into a crowded market for plaque psoriasis treatments. The massive amount comprises an up-front $175 million payment, along with a potential $75 million regulatory milestone and up to $950 million in commercial milestones. In the deal, Organon brings in Vtama (tapinarof) cream, a topical, aryl hydrocarbon receptor agonist for mild, moderate and severe plaque psoriasis in adults.

For a whopping $7.1 billion up front, Roche AG is buying Telavant Holdings Inc., a firm that is owned by Roivant Sciences Ltd. and Pfizer Inc. The deal also includes $150 million on the back end, and Roche gains rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize a fully human monoclonal antibody targeting tumor necrosis factor-like ligand 1A, RVT-3101, for treating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and possibly other diseases in the U.S. and Japan. Pfizer retains the rights for the rest of the world.

Priovant Therapeutics Inc. is the newest of the Vants, a creature of Roivant Sciences Ltd., of Basel, Switzerland and Pfizer Inc. Established in September 2021, Priovant is developing brepocitinib, a tyrosine kinase 2 and JAK1 inhibitor for treating multiple highly inflammatory autoimmune diseases.

Dermavant Sciences Inc. has received its first FDA approval with the agency’s blessing of Vtama (tapinarof) for treating plaque psoriasis in adults. The treatment is also the first FDA-approved, steroid-free topical medication in its class in addition to being the first psoriasis novel topical chemical entity introduced to the market in the past 25 years.

A prolific builder of biopharma and health technology companies, Roivant Sciences Ltd. is poised to join Nasdaq through a newly proposed merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) sponsored by Patient Square Capital LLC. The deal, which values Roivant at $5 billion, includes $611 million of new money, composed of $411 million held in trust by the SPAC, Montes Archimedes Acquisition Corp., plus $200 million from a committed PIPE financing. The transaction, expected to peg Roivant's initial market cap at $7.3 billion, follows a September 2019 deal in which Roivant sold interests in five biopharmas to Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co. Ltd. (SDP) for $3 billion cash.

Roivant Sciences Ltd. is buying Silicon Therapeutics LLC for $450 million in Roivant equity plus regulatory and commercial milestone payments. The combination of Silicon’s computational physics platform for in silico design or optimizing small-molecule drugs with Roivant’s newly unveiled protein degradation platform will be powered by Roivant’s machine learning models.